


Inhale, Exhale, Repeat

by Anobii1992



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Snow
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:13:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24756088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anobii1992/pseuds/Anobii1992
Summary: It was supposed to be a pleasant walk, but nothing ever goes to plan when the Doctor is involved. There’s something in the water but sometimes it’s the things you can’t see that present the biggest threat.
Comments: 31
Kudos: 26





	Inhale, Exhale, Repeat

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JuliaHelman101](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JuliaHelman101/gifts).



> Julia I finally got it up though it's now a two shot instead of a one shot. Oh well!

“Lovely day for a stroll” announced the Doctor, bounding cheerfully out of the TARDIS and starting down the hill.

“What you call a stroll I call a hike” grumbled Graham. “Can’t we at least bring a picnic?”

“Like you don’t have sandwiches hiding in your pockets Gramps” teased Ryan. Privately he wasn’t too thrilled about the prospect of a hike either, his dyspraxia did not enjoy it, especially in the winter weather conditions, but at least it wasn’t running for his life. Yet anyway. With the Doctor there was always time.

“It’s way too cold for a picnic anyway” Yaz pointed out cheerfully, picking up her pace to catch up with the Doctor. The three of them were wrapped up warmly in long, thick coats, boots and woollies borrowed from the TARDIS wardrobe but the Doctor had only stuck on her favourite Rainbow scarf.

“Oh stop whining Graham, you’re going to love it. The Snowball Festival on Gerthum is renowned throughout this part of the galaxy. There will be visitors from all over to celebrate and there will be plenty of food when we get there.”

“It doesn’t look like a place getting ready to host inter-galactic snowball fights.” Ryan pointed out.

“You’re right there” agreed the Doctor, pulling out her sonic and slowly scanning the area. “Nope we’re definitely in the right place, the TARDIS just parked us a little further out than intended. But now we get to enjoy the scenery as well. Isn’t it stunning?”

She was right, they were just coming down the side of a steep hill which was covered in fresh, powdery snow, the sort that never seemed to fall in the UK. In the distance there was a lake which was a stunning, deep turquoise colour. There was the occasional tree, similar to a pine though considerably taller and the needles were more akin to ferns and the hillside was dotted with a few, sporadic, small cabins.

Despite the deep snow that threatened to spill over the tops of their boots the going was considerably helped by the fact that they were heading downhill and the Doctor set a fast pace as always.

“How far is this place exactly?” asked Ryan after an hour of walking as he pulled himself out of the snow having tripped over his own feet for the fourth time.

“Just on the other side of the lake.” The Doctor reassured him, offering him a hand to pull him back to his feet. The lake wasn’t too far away though they were going to have to descent a steep embankment first.

“You alright there Doc? You seem a bit distracted.” Asked Graham, puffing slightly.

“I’m fine thank Graham it’s just… have you noticed we’ve passed six of those cabins now and there isn’t a sign of life in any of them. I’ve been here before, the people in this part of Gerthum rely on fishing from the lake. They’re friendly and welcoming but the area seems to have been abandoned and I don’t know why.”

“Maybe we overshot a bit?” offered Yaz. “Maybe we’re further into their future than you intended and they’ve just moved on from this area.”

“Maybe…” agreed the Doctor but her voice was quiet and she didn’t sound convinced.

“Well you can investigate when we get to the festival.” Ryan said cheerfully, subtly scooping up a large handful of snow and lobbing it in the Doctor’s direction.

“Ryan!” she shouted indignantly though her eyes were twinkling. She bent down to scoop up a handful of snow in retaliation, and they weren’t quite sure what happened next: had her foot caught on something; did the ground give way; did she just turn on her ankle and lose her balance? Whatever had happened the result was the same as the Doctor was suddenly crashing down the last part of the steep hill before landing in the lake with an almighty splash.

“Doctor!” screamed Yaz, instantly taking off down the hill after her. She could feel blood pounding in her ears. The Doctor had resurfaced but she was face down and wasn’t making any attempt to move.

Yaz was pulling off her coat in preparation for going in after her when Ryan grabbed her.

“Yaz stop!” he shouted at her, pointing to the middle of the lake. A large, purple tentacle was snaking towards the Doctor slowly. It deliberately wound its way around the Doctor’s arm before viciously yanking her under the water.

“We have to help her!”

Ryan was still holding Yaz’s arm. “How?” he demanded. “We have no idea how big that thing is, how many there are and no way of getting into the lake without swimming.”

“We can’t just leave her! She’ll drown!”

Graham had arrived beside them. There were a few ripples across the lake where the Doctor had been pulled under but no other sign of her.

The seconds ticked by excruciatingly.

“There!” shouted Graham suddenly. The Doctor was still held by the tentacle as it threw her in the air by the arm and then catching her around the waist. It threw her once, twice, three times as her body flopped around like a ragdoll.

The fam watched in horror as the Doctor made no move to break free, clearly unconscious… or dead.

Abruptly the tentacle seemed to get bored. The creature gave an almighty throw and tossed the Doctor clean across the lake where she crashed into the trees on the shoreline and landed face down in a boneless heap in the mud.

Yaz wrenched herself free from where Graham and Ryan had been restraining her and sprinted across the frozen ground, a small flurry of snow kicking up behind her, to where the Doctor was lying. She wasn’t moving. As she reached the sticky, muddy banks the water pooled around the winter hiking boots. Yaz seized the Doctor under the armpits and dragged her onto the dryer bank, aiming for a snow free spot under one of the trees a few metres away and trying not to look too closely as the other woman’s head lolled hopelessly.

Yaz gently laid the Doctor on the ground. Her face was grey, her bloodless lips tinged slightly blue from the cold. Her hair was sticking to her face and she was covered in mud. Graham and Ryan skidded up behind her, having finally caught up to her.

“This is all my fault.” Ryan cried out, going into a panic. “If I hadn’t chucked that snowball… She knew there was something wrong…”

Yaz blocked him out and allowed her training to take over. Part of her police training had included a lifesaving course and an in depth first aid course. Of course, they had been for humans and Yaz knew that much as the Time Lord looked like the rest of them on the outside there were some key differences to her insides.

She put her ear to the Doctor’s mouth, watching for any sign that her chest was rising and falling and listening for any sign of breaths.

Nothing.

She put her fingers to the Doctor’s neck. There was a single pulse, weak and irregular but present.

Taking a steadying breath for herself and lacing her fingers together Yaz positioned her hands in between where she thought her two hearts were located and started compressions.

 _“One, two, three… …twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty”_ she counted in her head to keep herself right before gently tipping the Doctor’s head back, pinching her nose and breathing hard into her mouth twice, watching her chest to make sure it rose.

She paused for a moment, checking to see if the Doctor responded by taking a voluntary breath of her own. Nothing. She started repeating the compressions.

She was hyper aware of the trickle of water trickling out of the Doctor’s mouth with every compression. She could hear Ryan still panicking behind her and Graham crying and trying to comfort his grandson. She tried to tune them out, they weren’t helping.

She began her third round of CPR.

The Doctor remained stubbornly unresponsive.

Yaz was growing increasingly desperate. She knew from her training that most people couldn’t be revived without access to a defibrillator to shock the heart (hearts in this case) back into their normal rhythm. With a drowning victim it was slightly different as there wasn’t actually anything wrong with the respiratory system itself but every second Yaz was having to do CPR was another second the Doctor wasn’t getting oxygen to her brain. There wasn’t enough oxygen in her own exhaled breath to prevent brain damage.

Four rounds.

Yaz was starting to get tired now. She could feel the Doctor’s ribs shifting under her hands and knew she had broken them. Not that the Doctor could feel it.

She was starting her fifth round of CPR when she heard it. A small, weak cough.

You can’t cough if you’re not breathing.

Yaz lowered her head to the Doctor’s chest again watching with relief as it made a miniscule but autonomous rise.

Yaz grabbed her at her shoulders and knees, rolling the Doctor towards her as she coughed and vomited up a putrid mix of her breakfast, bile and lake water which swirled nauseatingly around Yaz’s knees.

Satisfied that the Doctor had finished coughing Yaz carefully lowered her onto her back again.

“Doctor? Can you hear me?”

No response.

Yaz gently lifted her hands. “Can you squeeze my hands for me?”

Still no response.

Yaz rolled her into the recovery position, worried she might start vomiting again and tipped her head back, making sure the Doctor was still breathing.

She was.

Yaz turned back to Ryan and Graham. “We need to get her out of here. Now.” She said urgently.

“The TARDIS is at least an hour away and all uphill, we’ll never carry her that far.”

“Ryan you’ll be fastest, go to the TARDIS as fast as you can. Go to the medbay and get portable oxygen if she has it and whatever she has in the way of a first aid kit. Don’t bring too much because we need you back here as fast as you can. Graham, we need to get her out of the cold. Let’s get her to that hut.”

Yaz knew she could be faster to get back to the TARDIS. She was fitter, stronger (not that Ryan would ever admit that) and didn’t have dyspraxia to contend with. But neither of the boys had any first aid training. And there was no way she was leaving the Doctor now.

Ryan left, putting his long legs to good use and striding his way back up the hill as fast as he could. Yaz took off her coat and with Graham’s help, rolled the Doctor onto it and started to drag her the couple of hundred metres to the cabin.

Yaz and Graham carefully deposited the Doctor on the floor in front of the empty fireplace inside the one roomed cabin. Graham quickly left again to go and find some wood to light a fire leaving Yaz alone with the Doctor. She was still unresponsive and hadn’t got any of her colour back. Yaz took a moment to look around the cabin. It was mostly empty but there were a few things lying around: a pile of bulky furs, some heavy cooking utensils and an old, empty, wooden cabinet. It looked like whoever had abandoned the place had left everything that was too big or too heavy or had no value behind rather than transporting it.

The Doctor wasn’t shivering which worried Yaz. She had spent a long time completely submerged in icy water. Yaz grabbed a heavy metal knife and used it to start hacking at the Doctor’s clothes, anxious to get her out of them and warm her up. Yaz took off her own jumper and used it to rub the Doctor’s body dry as best she could. The coat was now soaked as well so Yaz rolled her off of it and onto one of the furs, covering her with the others, noticing that her limbs were white and waxy.

Graham appeared back a few minutes later with armfuls of wood which he began to assemble in the fireplace.

“How do I light it?” he asked looking concerned and sitting back on his haunches.

Yaz was irritated. She had rescued the Doctor, she had given CPR while the boys had watched, she had organised them and now she was trying to assess the nature of the Doctor’s injuries. Did she really have to light a fire as well?

“I don’t know Graham. Look in her pockets. You know what she’s like, there’s bound to be something in there.”

“Do you think she’ll mind?”

“How about you ask her ghost after she’s died of hypothermia? Honestly Graham fifteen minutes she was literally dead and now she’s dangerously cold. I really don’t think she’s going to care if you go through her pockets looking for matches.”

Graham looked a bit miffed at Yaz’s irritated tone but went through the Doctor’s coat that Yaz had dumped in a heap in her haste to get her out of her wet clothes. He gave a small triumphant noise when he found a lighter and quickly set to work to build up some flames and get some heat into the room.

Yaz took one of the abandoned cooking pots and filled it with fresh snow which she left by the fire to melt. She had a feeling they would need fresh water before long especially because she had no idea how long they were likely to be stuck. They couldn’t leave until the Doctor could walk and she didn’t look like that was going to happen any time soon.

The Doctor’s breathing was becoming more laboured. Yaz guiltily suspected it was because of the broken ribs she had likely inflicted on the Doctor. She was reluctant to roll the woman onto her side again, not knowing how badly injured she was internally but she needed to make it easier for the Doctor to breathe so she took the damp coat and the last fur and propped them under the Doctor’s head and shoulders. She still didn’t stir.

Yaz and Graham sat as close to the Doctor as they could, trying to impart some of their warmth to her. After nearly two hours she had finally started shivering which Yaz knew to be good, it meant her body was finally making an attempt to warm itself up. Ryan should have made it to the TARDIS by now and would hopefully be on his way back. They hadn’t been walking with any great pace earlier and Ryan had long legs. Yaz reassured herself that he would be coming as fast he could.

When Ryan appeared an hour later the Doctor was still shivering violently and had developed an audible wheeze with every breath. He had a large bag on his back which had the oxygen and first aid kit that Yaz had asked for along with some food and mercifully some dry clothes for the Doctor to wear seeing as hers were both soaked and in shreds. He sank to the floor, panting heavily, having clearly been running.

Yaz pulled out the oxygen mask and gently placed it over the Doctor’s nose and mouth while Graham switched on the cannister. It had an almost immediate effect as the Doctor’s breathing eased considerably. Yaz delicately stroked a few stray strands of damp hair away from her face and checked her pulse. It was weak and thready and there was still only one.

She rummaged in the first aid kit but the only thing she recognised were bandages and the Doctor wasn’t actively bleeding from anywhere, or at least not from anywhere they could see.

“Are we supposed to do CPR on her other heart?” she asked, knowing the boys wouldn’t know the answer.

“I don’t know” Ryan said hopelessly while Graham shrugged his shoulders.

“Maybe we should get some sleep. We aren’t helping the Doc in any way by watching her.”

“You guys sleep. Someone needs to watch over her.”

“I’ll stay awake Yaz. Ryan’s had a long walk and you’ve done all the work. I’ll wake you if anything changes.”

“No I have to be with her!” Yaz felt like crying. She couldn’t leave the Doctor, not now.

“Yaz you’re exhausted love. Sleep, I promise to keep a really careful watch over her and I’ll wake you if there’s even the slightest change. I promise.”

Yaz nodded in acquiescence lying down beside the Doctor whose teeth had started rattling with the force of her shivering. She was exhausted and the cabin had warmed up nicely for the three of them who hadn’t spent time in an icy lake.

A few hours Yaz was woken by the Doctor groaning. She instantly twisted away, sitting on her knees and leaning over the Doctor.

“Doctor? Can you hear me?” Yaz called, loudly and clearly and leaning over her so she could be seen.

The Doctor’s eyes fluttered and swept slowly around the room before closing again.

Yaz gently tapped her face. “Hey, stay with me Doctor.”

The Doctor opened her eyes again. “Well done” said Yaz smiling.

The Doctor attempted to remove her mask with her right hand but gave a deep, pained groan.

“You’re okay” Yaz soothed, carefully removing the mask. “Can you tell me where it hurts? And don’t even think about telling me you’re fine.”

“My arm and my chest” she wheezed and Yaz held the mask over her face again.

Yaz was glad of her police training which gave her the ability to remain calm. “We have a TARDIS first aid kit but I don’t know what most of this stuff is.”

The Doctor weakly pushed at Yaz’s hand that was holding the mask.” Look for the tear-dropped shaped blue disk. Flip the switch and scan it over my body… head to toe… It’ll tell you.” She stopped talking, already breathless.

Yaz handed the mask to Ryan to hold to the Doctor’s face while she rummaged in the kit, finding the scanner and figuring out how to use it. It let out a wide blue beam and aimed the light over the Doctor’s head and slowly swept it down her body. The machine buzzed softly for a few moments before a load of the same symbols that were all over the TARDIS appeared.

“Doctor I can’t read this I’m sorry.”

“Swipe the screen, you’ll hit English eventually.” Her voice sounded worse and her eyes were closing again.

“Ryan keep her awake.” Yaz instructed as she fiddled with the unfamiliar piece of alien tech. The machine seemed to support dozens of languages and Yaz was getting frustrated as she swiped again and again trying to find English.

“Okay got it” she announced after a few minutes, her stomach clenching as she read through it.

“What does it say?” asked the Doctor.

“Dislocated right shoulder. Right arm broken in four places, broken right wrist and right hand crushed. Seven broken ribs. One of your hearts has stopped. Minor concussion and something called Florent poisoning?”

“Explains why I can’t breathe.”

“I’m sorry, the broken ribs are my fault. I had to give you CPR.”

“Not your fault… The Florent… Must have… been in the… water. Fine for you… highly toxic for my species.”

“Where can we get an antidote? Do you have one on the TARDIS? Ryan can go and get it.”

The Doctor shook her head. “I have to be on the TARDIS.”

Yaz and Ryan exchanged a glance. There was no way they were going to get the Doctor back to the TARDIS in the condition she was in. She could barely breathe and was clearly in a lot of pain.

“You need to put my shoulder back in. I’m losing blood flow to my arm.” She panted after a few moments of silence.

“Anyone know how to do that?” asked Yaz, looking to the two men.

They both shook their heads looking worried.

“We can’t Doctor. Your arm is broken in multiple places, it would be incredibly painful and none of us know how to do it. We could make it worse.”

“You have to Yaz. I don’t want to lose my arm. Please.”

“I’ve seen it done a couple of times by the paramedics when I’ve been on the job but I’ve never done it.” Yaz admitted. “Are you sure you want me to try this?” she asked.

“You have to.”

Yaz took a deep, steadying breath, looking at the Doctor carefully and thinking about what she had to do.

“Ryan give me your shirt.”

“What? No! You give me your shirt!”

“Ryan I need to make a sling and mine doesn’t have buttons. Besides I’ve already lost my jumper and coat!”

Ryan reluctantly took off his jumper and unbuttoned his shirt, leaving himself bare chested.

“Doctor, Ryan and I are going to help you sit up so you’re leaning against him. I’m very sorry but I’m going to ask in to put his legs on top of yours to hold you still. Graham, come here and hold her left hand… and Ryan put your jumper back on for goodness sake.”

“Squeeze as hard as you like cockle, I know I’m not much to look at but you keep watching me while Yaz is doing her thing, yeah?”

Yaz slipped the mask back over the Doctor’s face, securing it with the straps. She couldn’t quite stifle a moan as Yaz and Ryan propped her up in a semi-seated position leaning against Ryan’s chest. Yaz took his shirt and buttoned the collar around the Doctor’s neck, smoothing the rest across her body.

“Are you sure you want me to do this?” Yaz checked.

The Doctor nodded, determinedly gritting her teeth and looking away from what was about to happen. Graham, bless him, instantly started telling her about the snowman building contest he had entered at school to distract her.

Yaz ran her fingers over the Doctor’s shoulder, gently prodding to try and feel the dislocation and to find out where the breaks were. She took a firm hold of the Doctor’s hand and elbow, ignoring her low, pained groan as she hadn’t actually done anything yet before she picked up her arm and quickly manipulated it, forcing it to grate back into place. The Doctor let out a scream, her body jerking once against where Ryan and Graham were holding her down before she passed out.

Yaz worked quickly, taking advantage of the fact that the Doctor wasn’t hurting anymore. She moved the Doctor’s arm so it was resting flat against her chest and folded Ryan’s shirt across it, tying it in place with the shirt sleeves so her badly broken arm was immobilised. She then used the bandages from the First Aid Kit to wrap around the Doctor’s torso to support her broken ribs. She had developed a disturbing rattling sound as she drew breath and Yaz didn’t know if it was a result of the poison or because of the broken ribs.

Ryan eased himself out from behind her and settled her back on the pile of furs. Graham started rummaging for the food Ryan had brought and Yaz started to attempt to wake the Doctor again. It took a few minutes but she slowly clawed her way back to a level of semi-consciousness.

“Hey, how you doing?” Yaz asked as soon as the Doctor’s panicked eyes focused, trying to keep the emotion out of her voice.

The Doctor reached up, grabbing at Yaz. “I need… to sit up… please… can’t breathe…” she rasped.

Yaz looked round in panic but the two boys were by their side instantly. Yaz scooped an arm behind her back on the injured side, Ryan took the other and Graham grabbed her under her knees. Together they lifted her so she was resting against the wall of the cabin, trying to jolt her as little as possible. The mask slipped as her head banged against the cabin wall and Graham quickly pulled it back down over her face. She gave a slight nod in acknowledgement.

She sucked greedily at the oxygen for a few moments, allowing it to dull the fiery sensation in her chest before pulling it off.

“We have to go, I have to get back to the TARDIS.”

“Doc you can barely sit, how do you propose to stand?” Graham asked incredulously as they watched her feet scrabble uselessly at the floor for purchase.

She glared at him. “Then help me.”

Graham looked hopelessly at the other two who shrugged. “How about you eat something, Yaz will help you get dressed and then we’ll help you.”

“This isn’t the time to be thinking of your stomach Graham” she spluttered, breaking out into a coughing fit as Yaz took the hand that was holding onto the oxygen mask and raised it back to her face.

“We’re all tired and its way below freezing out there not to mention an uphill climb all the way back. We need energy or we’ll never make it.”

He didn’t say it but privately he felt like it was highly unlikely that she would make it back under her own steam. If she needed to be supported or, God forbid, carried, it would be even harder on the rest of them to get her there. He had already lifted her today, she was heavier than she looked.

She glared at him above the mask. He was right, they wouldn’t make it without the extra calories, it would be a hard climb back under any circumstances but one handed and with Florent coursing through her veins it was going to be even harder.

Ryan was rummaging through the bag that was at his feet and handed out bars of what appeared to be chocolate.

“I don’t know what these are really but the TARDIS left them out for me so I figured I should bring them.” He said with a shrug.

“They’re glucose bars, made on Saturn in the 26th Century. They’ll automatically taste like whatever your favourite chocolate is.” The Doctor answered, her voice a little steadier.

They ate quickly, not bothering to chat. The fam were watching the Doctor out of the corner of their eyes. She looked okay, better than she had since they had pulled her out of the lake. She was sitting up straight. still wrapped in the furs and chewing determinedly, the oxygen mask languishing on the floor beside her.

The Doctor ate the glucose bar as quickly as she could, staring at the floor. She could feel her fam watching her and she resolutely ignored them. Concern, pity, worry? She wasn’t sure which, she just knew she didn’t want or need it. She needed to get them out of here and back to the TARDIS.

Florent was a nasty poison and she could already feel it would working. First stage was burning through her respiratory system which it was doing right now. Second stage it would start to attack her nervous system causing pain and seizures. Third stage it would be deeply embedded into her brain slowly causing paralysis of all muscles including her heart and pulmonary tubes. She wouldn’t be able to breathe and she would die.

If it got as far as the seizures it would really give the fam a fright. If it got as far as the paralysis she wouldn’t make it back to the TARDIS. They didn’t have time to hang around. The food had been necessary but now that it had been eaten they needed to move. Fast.

All she needed to do was breathe. Inhale, exhale, repeat. Easy.


End file.
